The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), a major influence on ocean circulation and regional climate, may have been strongly reduced during cold periods since the Last Glacial Maximum. Joerg Lippold and colleagues provide a comprehensive data set of two independent proxies of ocean circulation - chemical water mass tracers from deep western North Atlantic sediments - for this critical period, dating to 140,000 years ago. A climate reconstruction shows that the AMOC experienced strong reductions only during the Heinrich events (bursts of iceberg release) that were closest to the most severe glacial periods. At other times, the AMOC was quite stable, suggesting that it is more resistant to perturbations than was previously thought.
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